Southern Culture and Community: Literatures of Modernity Students in New Orleans
In Volume 1 of his Chronicles, Bob Dylan writes that 鈥淓verything in New Orleans is a good idea.鈥� Certainly the 2015 Annual Conference of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association held in New Orleans was a good鈥攎ake that a great鈥攊dea for the more than 3,000 scholars from around the world in attendance from April 1 to 4. More pointedly, several Ryerson graduate students joined Department of English professor Liz Podnieks for a Louisiana jaunt, presenting scholarly papers in the PCA/ACA鈥檚 Motherhood/Fatherhood Area, of which she is the Chair.
Current Literatures of Modernity classmates Adele Graham and Rebecca Thursten delivered their respective papers 鈥淔ather of the Year: A Cultural Analysis of Thomas Beatie鈥� and 鈥溾�楽ometimes my mommy doesn't smile at all鈥�: Exploring Presentations of Maternal Mental Illness in Fiction for Children.鈥�
The value of the experience is registered by Adele: 鈥淚 thoroughly enjoyed my time at the PCA/ACA Conference in New Orleans. It was a wonderful opportunity to meet and interact with academics from a variety of levels, interests, and locations. I appreciated the opportunity to present my ideas and arguments, and to hear about the different research and opinions of other seasoned academics. I was very happy to be surrounded by warm and friendly people (Becky included!) and not to mention the delicious food and music that Louisiana offers. It was a wonderful learning experience and I encourage my peers and future LitMod students to attend an international conference, like the PCA/ACA, to enjoy all the benefits of the experience.鈥�
In like spirit, Rebecca comments, 鈥淚 was so grateful to be able to attend the PCA/ACA conference: I'm very lucky that my first conference experience was with such a friendly and welcoming academic community. My paper went down well, and I was really glad to be able to answer questions from my peers and more senior academics. The sheer breadth of the conference was stunning: across the three days that I was there, I was able to watch panels on topics from the Dickensian influence on slave narratives, to the role of the sewing machine in horror cinema, to the music of Captain Beefheart. I walked away with lots of new ideas for papers! Plus we couldn't have asked for a better location: New Orleans is a stunning city, and I'll be thinking back to the food, music and culture very, very fondly.鈥�
Other Ryersonians presenting in the Area include former LitMods Walter Lai and Mimi Choi, as well as Communication and Culture candidates Andrea Schofield and Natalie Morning.